Barack has a chance to make history

Barack has a chance to make history

Barack made and eloquent speech defending his relationship with Reverend Wright but he failed to change the perception that he is not from the same mold as many other black leaders across this country.

He has a chance, a very rare opportunity that only comes along once in a lifetime. That chance will still be there for just a little while longer but not much. This is his moment, in the midst of the hot campaign and while he still has his credibility, he has a chance to change the course of history.

He has the chance to end that deep seated fear that his grandma and many others have harbored since the black power movement of the sixties. Black and white people split in the sixties. Black Panthers, Malcolm X and some Olympic champions had given the black man a new powerful, black is beautiful, feeling, and it was good, initially. It must have been exhilarating, The white man, instead of respecting the black man for this new found inner pride, feared it because this new found pride was the in-your-face kind of pride. Newly emerging black leaders exploited this new black pride by spewing hate and vengeance on (Whitey). Jessie Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Reverend Wright and many other black leaders old enough to have struggled in the sixties are still exploiting blacks today. They took advantage of this new found black power by using it for self aggrandizement, for power and out of genuine hate.

Martin Luther King went in a different direction, he gained the respect of the vast majority of the public by marching against injustices. He wanted to peacefully bring people together, blacks and whites, all people to share in his dream. He inspired inner pride , like Gandhi, rather than waste his time on fruitless hate. He told people that they were equal and as good as any other, rather than point fingers at whites and blame all the ills of America on the past.

Barack Obama has a unique chance to end race divisions in this country right now, forever, by simply saying, to the effect, 'Race prejudice ends right now, starting with me, a new beginning is right now. The negative past is over, put away, gone, forgotten. Anyone trying to keep it alive is wrong and I will denounce him as should everyone else in their Church, in their home, everywhere. Rev. Wright is wrong in his thinking and his hateful words and needs to repent and see that a new day has dawned, today, now. Jessie Jackson is wrong in perpetuating divisions in America among races and I call for him to join me in denouncing race divisions. There is simply no room in this country for preachers and politicians to spread anymore hate, fear, and blame on their fellow Americans. Complainers of past injustices need to stop whining and move on right now. We must fight injustice where ever we find it but do so it in a civil, peaceful and in and understanding manor. Injustice is everywhere and can be found among all races. Blacks no longer have a special corner on the market’.

Barack needs to say, with deep conviction that he was wrong for not stopping Wright from preaching his hateful sermons years ago, but that he was weak and could not quit the church. America forgives as easily as it forgets. He must say that he realizes now more that ever in this defining moment of his life that negative preaching is counterproductive for blacks and whites and it must stop. Wounds among races will never heal so long as someone is pouring acid in the sore.

If Barack truly wants ‘Change, a New Beginning’ as his campaign slogans continually call for, then he has a unique opportunity to show his presidential leadership skills while campaigning and while he has the nations attention. He has the talent and has shown himself to be a brilliant orator and statesman. He has a chance to make history. He has a chance to turn the negative race issue into a positive.

But maybe Barack does not feel the way I've described at all. Maybe he doesn’t see that this is his defining moment in his life. If he doesn’t see it than he is just another pretender to the throne and he will lose the presidential race. Maybe Rev. Wright was sucessful over the past twenty years, in ingraining in Barack some resentment for whites and in America .